Flowable materials are commonly dispensed using direct mechanical action. For example, a manual caulking gun has a trigger, configured to advance a plunger that extrudes material from a cartridge. However, manual activation of the trigger to extrude the flowable material, which often has a glutinous consistency, is physically demanding and, accordingly, difficult to control. Pneumatic action is readily available to supplement or replace direct mechanical action when force amplification is required. However, compressible nature of gases results in a loss of precision when pneumatic action is used for dispensing flowable materials. Overall, conventional devices and methods of dispensing flowable materials lack precision, needed in certain critical applications, such as aerospace.